Feminism and Feminist Literature

Feminism is the recognition and identification of the sources of subordination of women. It comprises activism to end subservience and strategies to overcome domination. Cynthia Enloe defines feminism as the belief in the significance of gender equity, nullifying the ideology of gender hierarchy as a socially-constructed concept. It rejects the notion of biological difference and challenges prejudice. Feminism is based on the idea that women‘s subordination is universal because of the universality of patriarchy (4). Though the concepts of feminism and strategies differ from place to place and sometimes from one feminist group to another in the same country, the trials to alleviate women suffering make it a universal movement. Throughout the feminist movement, autobiography played a role in enhancing the woman‘s status, reflecting the woman‘s self, documenting the era the autobiographies were written in, and reflecting cultural identity. Feminism is now highly concerned with the cultural and individual difference, aspects which are highly fostered in texts written by women.